Zeinab Saab

Why did you choose NIU?The faculty in the School of Art played a large role in choosing NIU, as well as the facilities and resources available too. What brought me here was the printmaking department and the space available to experiment with different media. NIU has been a good place for me because of the support I have received from both faculty and classmates. The development that has taken place over the last year would not have been possible without faculty and classmates challenging each other to produce stronger works of art.

Why should other students choose NIU?I think other students should attend NIU because the faculty here is always there to look out for you and make sure that whatever you’re doing or making should challenge you further, and that the best is always expected. I appreciate the faculty having such high expectations and only settling for your very best. They’re very understanding and willing to listen but also expect you to have a strong work ethic and want to see the best come out of you.

What are you studying and why? I am a second year MFA Candidate studying printmaking. What excites me about my major is the ability to be serious while still being curious and playing around with other mediums. I can bounce around from making prints to digitally fabricating a design with a laser cutter/engraver, and so on and so forth. I don’t have to keep making work in the same medium which means I can take courses that are outside my major and incorporate what I learned into new artworks. I originally gravitated towards printmaking because of the ability to make multiples of the same image by hand, and how it can work into making large-scale installations.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned so far?The most interesting thing I’ve learned thus far is the day to day operations of an art museum. As a Graduate Research assistant at the NIU Art Museum I get to be involved in a portion of that, but hearing and seeing just how much effort is put into exhibiting a show is a great deal of work and being a part of that has been the most interesting aspect of being here.